{"id":19035,"date":"2018-01-12T20:54:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T20:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/?p=19035"},"modified":"2018-01-12T21:16:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T21:16:24","slug":"an-active-and-thriving-amateur-radio-community-is-what-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/blog\/news\/rsgb-notices\/2018\/01\/12\/an-active-and-thriving-amateur-radio-community-is-what-we-need\/","title":{"rendered":"An active and thriving amateur radio community is what we need!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Part of our strategic goal for 2022 is to have an active and thriving amateur radio community. I\u2019m going to explain this a little more and pose some questions for you, the Members.<\/p>\n

The Strategy\u2019s narrative says this about the 2022 goal: \u201cThe inescapable truth is that the amateur radio community is ageing and we need to seek out and encourage new people if that community is to thrive. We also need it to be active to show that amateur radio is not only alive but healthy and vibrant; a strong justification for our continued use of the wireless spectrum.\u201d So where do we go to seek out new people and how do we plan to encourage them to join us?<\/p>\n

The Society has made a real effort to give youngsters reasons to get involved. Through supporting initiatives like Tim Peake\u2019s Principia mission, Jamboree on the Air, Thinking Day on the Air and Youngsters on the Air (YOTA), we have shown that amateur radio can be fun and educational. Peter Barnes, M0SWN who was one of the UK\u2019s YOTA 2017 team members, has since gone on to Swansea University and has been busy re-starting the amateur radio club there, affiliating it to the RSGB and participating in YOTA month. So the events mentioned above act as springboards not only for youngsters to develop their own amateur radio interests but\u00a0also to draw others in.<\/p>\n

I was asked at the Convention \u201cBut what are you doing to attract older newcomers?\u201d We have a promotional video in the pipeline intended to\u00a0mirror the 21st Century Hobby video (which is aimed at youngsters) to publicise amateur radio to a more mature audience. The idea is to show a range of amateur radio activities, demonstrate how they support lifelong learning and appeal to people whatever their skills and interests.<\/p>\n

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“Where do we go to seek out new people and how do we plan to encourage them to join the amateur radio community?”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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However, finding the more mature audience is a challenge \u2013 some have suggested SAGA, the University of the 3rd Age (U3A), and the Men-In-Sheds movement. We\u2019ll pursue those, but has your club managed to tap into a new source of older newcomers?<\/p>\n

Turning to the \u2018active\u2019 part of the 2022 goal, how can we show we are using our spectrum to best advantage?<\/p>\n

\"\"One way is to have lots of people chasing awards. Chris Burbanks\u2019 revival of the RSGB Awards scheme<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0continues to make good progress with 64 successful claims from five continents processed during 2017. Acceptance of LoTW<\/a><\/strong> (Log Book of the World) confirmations as well as traditional QSL cards has proved very popular and made a significant impact in reducing the time span for someone working towards an Award. The IARU Region 1 Award<\/a><\/strong> has proved the most popular as it covers member countries in Europe, Africa and near Asia \u2013 the base level is confirmed contacts with just 40 member countries, making it quite achievable.<\/p>\n

There are revitalised awards specifically for Foundation and Intermediate licence holders \u2013 could you encourage newcomers to those licence levels to spend a bit more time on the air and increase band activity?<\/p>\n

For those who are a little more energetic, how about hosting an Amateur Radio Direction Finding<\/a><\/strong> (ARDF) event? Bob Titterington\u2019s team are always keen to help newcomers get involved and they have equipment Affiliated Clubs can borrow. Bob is proposing to run a series of monthly events from March to November, so look out for those and give it a go.<\/p>\n

There are lots of other audiences we need to reach and ways of being active but these are just examples that you and your clubs could focus on to help implement the Strategy by building that thriving and active community.<\/p>\n

Steve Hartley, G0FUW<\/strong>
\nBoard Director<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of our strategic goal for 2022 is to have an active and thriving amateur radio community. I\u2019m going to explain this a little more and pose some questions for you, the Members. The Strategy\u2019s narrative says this about the 2022 goal: \u201cThe inescapable truth is that the amateur radio community is ageing and we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rsgb-notices","category-rsgb-strategy-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}